


As a Seal

by stephanericher



Series: SASO 17 [9]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Restaurant, M/M, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 20:29:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11169492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stephanericher/pseuds/stephanericher
Summary: (After they’re married, the two of them being married; Taiga feels sparks down his spine.)





	As a Seal

**Author's Note:**

> may or may not be part of 't's kitchen' verse??
> 
> for saso br1, original prompt [here](https://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/21522.html?thread=10927378#cmt10927378)
> 
> title comes from [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5RWvwmQ4D8)

Taiga catches the tail end of Tatsuya’s laughter, blossoming warm across the room, through the swinging door to the kitchen as he comes in, turning his face with the smile still stuck to it. He looks like he’s about to feign surprise for a second, but he has to know Taiga’s been hiding out back here, shirking the activity. It’s a small wedding; they’ve closed off the restaurant and held parties for high-paying clients with twice as many people and fit them in comfortably, but the volume isn’t really the issue. It’s people in general, and it’s Tatsuya; it’s the thought that today he is going to be married to Tatsuya—something he’s known for a year, thought about for longer (since before their restaurant became a reality or more than a pipe dream, since before they’d started sharing a bank account), but now that it’s really happening it’s a lot to process, as if he’s a computer someone’s suddenly decided to overclock and all the warning in the world isn’t going to be enough.  
  
“How are you doing?” Tatsuya says (he already knows the answer).  
  
One hand slips over to brush imaginary dust off of Taiga’s jacket, and when was the last time they’d both worn suits? Taiga can’t remember, really; his mind is failing and coming up with images of Tatsuya in his high school uniform, in the khakis and button-down with sleeves rolled up he’d worn to Taiga’s college graduation, forearms already glowing with summer.   
  
But right now he looks even more gorgeous, face relaxed into the real smile he’s worn exponentially more around Taiga in the few years since they’d opened the restaurant, tuxedo leaving very little to Taiga’s imagination or memory, the familiar outline of his body silhouetted in sharp creases of dark fabric. His hand comes to rest on Taiga’s shoulder, thumb brushing the edge of his jacket collar. Taiga leans down to kiss him, nuzzle against his nose; the smile still hasn’t left Tatsuya’s mouth when he pulls back slightly.  
  
“There’s still time,” Tatsuya murmurs. “We can elope; it can just be the two of us and some random judge, hmm?”  
  
He’s kidding, but still. There’s no other option on a venue than their restaurant, their baby (as it were—with the rate they work, even if Taiga manages to convince Tatsuya somewhere along the line that kids aren’t a bad idea, there won’t be any of the real kind anytime soon); of course their employees should be there; of course Alex should, too, and Taiga’s dad and Tatsuya’s parents. But. If it could just be the two of them, in the kitchen, dressed like this, enjoying each other, that would be the perfect day.   
  
Tatsuya glances over Taiga’s shoulder, and Taiga follows his gaze to the gift bag on the counter.  
  
“I got you something,” Taiga says. “Since, you know, technically speaking, this is anniversary zero.”  
  
Tatsuya smiles wider, eye crinkling at the corner. “Can I open it now?”  
  
“Please,” says Taiga, practically shoving the bag into Tatsuya’s hands.   
  
Tatsuya pulls out the bottle of scotch, seventy-five-year vintage—it had cost a little more than he’d hoped, especially given how hard to find it had been, but it’s Tatsuya’s favorite brand, the one he uses in his best cocktail but prefers to sip straight (but always says they can’t really afford it), but price doesn’t really matter when it comes to Tatsuya (and, considering their profit margin—excellent even without considering that they run a restaurant—he can afford it).   
  
“Taiga—this is.” Tatsuya clears his throat. “Thank you.”  
  
“It’s good?”  
  
“It’s wonderful,” says Tatsuya, admiring the label before looking back up at Taiga and leaning up for another quick kiss.  
  
He sets the bottle back in the bag and places the bag back onto the counter, then digging his hands into his pockets. “I have something for you, too. I know we bought those gold rings, but.”  
  
He pulls two very familiar chains, tangled up with each other, out from his right pocket, and Taiga’s throat constricts. He’d thought about asking, when they’d gone ring shopping and settled on bands that were plain and reasonably-priced and enough to satisfy anyone but Taiga had kept thinking back to those, the cool metal on his left middle finger way back when. They’ve long since become too small; he and Tatsuya have long since stopped wearing the rings, and Tatsuya had kept them both in his dresser for a while and then in the bank safe with their birth certificates.   
  
“I wasn’t too excited about them, and I could tell you weren’t, either, so I went to the jewelry store,” he says, fingering the slightly-brighter links on the necklace that was his once, and he doesn’t have to say for Taiga to guess it’s the one he went to when he’d gotten that repaired, way back when—and he doesn’t want Tatsuya to think about that on their wedding day; he reaches out to cup Tatsuya’s cheek.  
  
Tatsuya looks up. “They adjusted them for me, added a little bit. If you want to still use the others—”  
  
“No way,” says Taiga. “Tatsuya, this is…perfect.”  
  
(The word seems underwhelming, overused in situations it wasn’t made for, but if anything ever was it’s this, the rings, sealing their relationship all over again, so many years later.) Tatsuya’s face relaxes; he gets it. He slips the rings back into his pocket, and Taiga feels his own face fall.  
  
“You’ll have plenty of time for those after we’re married,” Tatsuya says.   
  
(After they’re married, the two of them being married; Taiga feels sparks down his spine.)   
  
“I thought about getting you a basketball court, though,” Tatsuya says; he’s kidding again (he lets his smile give him away, as if he needs to) and Taiga leans in to give him another kiss, longer and deeper this time—they’ll have plenty of time for that after they’re married, too, but they’ve got plenty of time now and Taiga’s not going to waste it.


End file.
